All Stories​​​​‌‍​‍​‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‌‍‍‌‌‍‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍‌​‌‍​‌‌‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌​‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍​‍​‍​​‍​‍‌‍‍​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌‍​‍​‍​‍‍​‍​‍​‍‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌‍‌‍‌​‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌‍‌‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‌‍‍​‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌​​‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌​​‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‌​‍‌‍‍‌‍​‌‌‍​‌‌​​‌‍​‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌​‍‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌​‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌​‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‍‌‍​​‌​‍‌‌​​‍‌​‌‍‌​‌‌​‌‌‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍​‍‌‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‌​​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌​​‍‌‍‌‌​‌‍‌‌​​‌‍‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‌‌‌‌​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌‌​​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‌​‌‍‍​​‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‌‌‌‌​‍‌‍‍‌‍​‌‌‍​‌‌​​‌‍​‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌​‍‍‌​​‌‍​‌‌‍‌‌‍‌‌‌​‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌‍‌​‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‌‍‌​‍‌‍‌​​‌‍‌‌‌​‍‌​‌​​‌‍‌‌‌‍​‌‌​‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌‌‌‍​‍‌‍​‌‍‍‌‌​‌‍‍​‌‍‌‌‌‍‌​​‍​‍‌‌

Eyrie

From a storm-lit ridge, Suprabha Seshan writes of mother, dogs, forest and weather bound together, and of a way of knowing that comes from living inside the elements.

BY Suprabha Seshan

A Home of One’s Own

Stories of women who left, rebuilt, and redefined what home means: refuge, reinvention, or both.

BY Suvasini Sridharan

Carrying Homes Within You

Bombay's restlessness, Delhi's remembered rooms, and a home that pulls from two directions.

BY Radhika Iyengar

Home Beyond the Door

Home as an ever-widening expanse: from rooms to forests, mountains, and the more-than-human world.

BY Jennifer Nandi

In the Shade of My Grandfather’s Tree

Sun-warmed oranges and salted gooseberries carry the taste of a home lost to fire, but never forgotten.

BY Hoihnu Hauzel

Service Before Self

Combat in Northern India's mountains, reflective stillness, and lessons learned through listening.

BY General Rajan Ravindran

A Sacred Drift Called Bhoomi

Stories of farmers across southern India, debt, drought, and a personal return to her grandfather's land.

BY Latha Menon

The Haiku Dive into Life

Turning to haiku to listen to life's smallest offerings: a broom's hush, rain-washed windows, birdsong at dawn.

BY Ranu Jain

Searching For Peace

a liminal world of creatures, stars, spirits and waters unfold through verse and painting, imagining kinship beyond borders and story as a way of returning to connection.

BY Jackie Morris

A Sprig of Mint: Finding a Common Ground

Green chutney, a garden planted over with mint, and the common ground between a cook and her botanist mother.

A Songline in the Elephant Hills

A quarter century of listening in the Anamalai Hills, mapping a soundscape of birds, frogs, rain, and wind.

BY Divya Mudappa, T. R. Shankar Raman

Poems from An Uncommon Migrant

Five poems on a grandfather's Gandhian life in the Nilgiris: worn khadi, an open kitchen, a marriage of shared dreams.

BY Shobhana Kumar

Craft in South India: A Legacy at the Crossroads

Bronze, stone, and wood in South India, and whether the children of craftsmen will carry the work forward.

BY Deborah Thiagarajan

Co-Becoming: The Human-Dog Kinship

Forty thousand years of becoming together, India's free-living dogs, and what the animal mirror shows us.

BY Sindhoor Pangal

The Colour of Remembering

Old photograph light, the small ephemera of 1992, and the unseen person behind every camera.

BY Pankaj Singh

Writing About The End of The World, One Flower At A Time

A once-in-twelve-years kurinji bloom in Coorg, and the pull between lament and ode for a vanishing landscape.

BY Urvashi Bahuguna

How Stories Arrive: Geeta Ramanujam on Listening

Reflective listening as the heart of every tale, shaped by a lifetime of storytelling.

BY Ramya Reddy, Rupali Goel

The Hollow Tree, Bombay Shola

A short fiction of a father, a daughter on the eve of boarding school, and a two-hundred-year-old tree in the fog.

BY Sohail Rekhy

Issue 7: An introduction

Mountains as mirror and muse, from the Himalayas to the Western Ghats, in Issue 7 of the journal.

BY Ramya Reddy

Life in the Times of the Neelakurinji

Three decades of kurinji seasons in Kodaikanal, and the shrinking grasslands the blue bloom depends on.

BY Lathika George

The Alchemy of Loss: A Short Journey in Mountain Time

After a separation, a return to the Nilgiris, where mountain time turns the keenness of loss into love.

BY Ashna Ashesh

Ruskin Bond: Reflections from the Writer on the Hill

A lifetime of writing from Shimla to Mussoorie, and why the mountains always call you back.

BY Ruskin Bond

Journeys Across Hills

Walking the Nilgiris with her father, then Kodagu alone, in search of a Kodava heritage slipping away.

BY Kaveri Ponappa

Issue 6: An introduction

Sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch, and the worlds they open, in Issue 6 of the journal.

BY Ramya Reddy

Foraged Feasts

Low tide on an island shore: clams traded for crabs, oysters roasted on the wharf, and a tradition under threat.

BY AJ Mallari

Embracing the moment: Thoughts on the Intersection of Poetry

Mary Oliver, Gulzar, and Cartier-Bresson, and the small poems waiting in cobwebs, raindrops, and afternoon light.

BY Ranu Jain

Clay and Consciousness: A Journey into the Sense of Touch

A blindfold at the potter's wheel, and learning to let touch, not sight, lead the conversation with clay.

BY Namrata Baruah

Turning Trash into Triumph: The Unyielding Spirit of Samantha Iyanna and Clean Coonoor

Clearing culverts and a river, and turning Coonoor's decades-old dumpyard into a garden.

BY Ramya Reddy

The Path of the River – Towards Renewal

Tagore's river that becomes the sea, an awakening after cancer, and renewal as a kind of shedding.

BY Malati Mukherjee

தாய் மனம் Thaai Maṇam

A homecoming to Ooty after Rome: woodsmoke, eucalyptus, sweet chai, and the scent of the mother that guides you back.

BY Kavita Malstead

A Pause for the Perfect Cup of Tea

High estates, cold nights, and winter frost: what makes Nilgiri tea so fine, and how to brew a cup.

BY Sandeep Subramani

The Voice of Vasamalli: Origins, Roots, and Life in the Toda Landscape

A Toda elder's childhood among buffaloes and sholas, the hare on the moon, and stories that must be kept.

BY Ramya Reddy

Ground Beneath My Feet

On the roots within us: early memories, the selves we buried, and the work of re-membering.

BY Shivranjana Rathore

Foraging – In Forests And Beyond

Tender tamarind leaves, Bathukamma flowers, and a vanishing thatching grass: foraging as memory, and how to begin.

BY Shruti Tharayil

A Potato For My Thoughts

A new kitchen, a pan of slow-roasting potatoes, and the meals that make strangers and new rooms feel like home.

BY Sharmila Vaidyanathan

Of Gathering

A short film on a time to gather: wildflowers picked, firewood carried, a table laid, and dancing under string lights.

BY Pranoy Biswas

The Road Rose To Meet Me: A Conversation With Dr. Deenaz Damania

A Coonoor psychotherapist on grief, a late-life move to the mountains, and choosing to keep changing.

BY Sharanya Manivannan

Love in the Blue Mountains

Eleven years with cancer, and the Kotagiri rains, fires, and sunsets a couple held on to.

BY Prabhu Viswanathan

A Case for Slow

Slowness as balance, not retreat: Carlo Petrini, a morning run, and the right to set your own tempo.

BY Ramya Reddy

Simple, Sublime Garden Radish on a Plate of Gratitude

Garden radishes, salted butter, and sea salt on sourdough: the French way, and a small meditation on eating simply.

BY Ramya Reddy

Summer Rain in the Mountains (Playlist #1)

A playlist of ten songs for the first summer showers, from Patrick Watson and Taba Chake to Tajdar Junaid.

BY Pranoy Biswas

Issue 11 | Indigenous: An Introduction

BY Ramya Reddy

The Pot Maker

Set in a Naga village, a young girl’s determination to learn pottery unfolds into a story about inheritance, women’s labour, tradition, and the passing of knowledge across generations. Published with permission from Zubaan Books

BY Temsula Ao

A Conversation Between a House and a Ghost

On how homes gather memory—holding, in their walls and air, the lingering presence of those who have passed through.

BY Pankaj Singh

Of Letter Boxes, Boxes and Forest Homes

The unmaking of a workplace-home becomes a meditation on attachment and departure.

BY K Srilata

Issue 10 | An Introduction

On the places that shape us: the ones we're born into, and the ones we build.

BY Ramya Reddy

The Room at The End of Life

End-of-life care, hard compassion, and the moments that ask for holding on or release.

BY Ashna Ashesh

Etched in Stone: Rock art of Ladakh

Ladakh's rock art, and nature as an active participant in our stories, beliefs, and belonging

BY Ahtushi Deshpande

The House by the River

A gentle fiction of music, memory and mourning unfolds through rivers, ragas and inheritance, carrying within it a deeper sense of planetary grief and our responsibility to those who come after us.

BY Parvathi Nayar

The Keeper of Indigenous Memory: Remembering Janagiamma

A Kurumba healer's forest garden, her pepper and her stories, and what is lost when elders go quiet.

BY Ramya Reddy

The Long Way Home

A move from Minnesota to Chennai, and the slow, aching work of letting go and beginning again.

BY Archana Srinivas

Issue 9: An introduction

Attention, presence, and the art of truly listening, in Issue 9 of the journal

BY Ramya Reddy

An Ode to Looking Up and Within

Crown shyness, the wood wide web, and a wandering mind learning when to hold on and when to let go.

BY Rohini Kejriwal

A Life Walking with Elephants: In Conversation with Prajna Chowta

Life as a mahout, a pregnancy shared with her elephant Kunti, and the shrinking space left for the wild.

BY Prajna Chowta, Ramya Reddy

All Roads Lead to Home: Arundhathi Subramaniam on Homecoming

Home as longing and return, and belonging found in cities, ancestry, travel, and the self.

BY Arundhathi Subramaniam, Ashna Ashesh

Wildflowers, Rivers, and Mountains—Navigating Time and Kinship

In North Sikkim, a village that refused a dam, time that moves in circles, and a long-awaited ibisbill.

BY Shrishtee Bajpai

A Loosely Guided Tour of a Place Called Belonging: A House of Many Rooms

The landscapes people carry: the Indus in a raised voice, Kerala's monsoon in an umbrella, a godwit's flight home.

BY Pankaj Singh

Roots and Resilience: A Conversation with Vanya Orr

A return to ancestral Nilgiris, a village that had forgotten how to dream, and years of healing land and people.

BY Ramya Reddy

Of Peaks and Pilgrims

In Tenzing Norgay's footsteps up Everest, and the reverence Sherpas hold for Chomolungma and her goddess.

BY Jamling Tenzing Norgay

Nestled in the Clouds: Lifestyle of the Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh

Butter tea, backstrap looms, and handmade paper in Arunachal Pradesh, where Monpa life is bound to faith and forest.

BY Julie Kagti

From the Land of Apricots

Apricot blossom, braided hair, and the Dard and Balti villages of Ladakh held together by a single fruit.

BY Ayan Biswas

Beneath the Glass

Stained glass as sanctuary and hiraeth: a deep longing for home, across human and animal realms.

BY Tamsin Abbott

Mountains and Meaning: Journeys of the Body and Soul

From the whiteness of Antarctica, a reflection on why we climb: the summit outside, and the one within.

BY Olaf Willoughby

Issue 8: An introduction

The bonds that tie us to people, places, and the more-than-human world, in Issue 8 of the journal.

BY Ramya Reddy

The Alchemy of Photography

Photography as alchemy: learning to see, the edge between order and chaos, and what AI adds to the mix.

BY Olaf Willoughby

The Art of Perfume

The perfumer as shaman, cities as smells, and scent as a museum of memories that takes you home.

BY Shoba Narayan

A Taste of Four Cities

Bangalore, London, Manila, and Barcelona, remembered through masala chai, dunked biscuits, and a grandmother's fish fry.

BY Anjalina Chugani

Confluence: A Tale of Collaboration, Chance and Creativity

Three photographers on three continents, the same five rolls of film, and triple exposures made without a brief.

BY Olaf Willoughby, Ramya Reddy, Shayne Lynn

Beginning Again

A first year in the New Mexico desert, fresh snow underfoot, and a whiptail lizard's lesson in starting over.

BY Ellen Petry Leanse

Dig No Further: Renewing the Soil and the Self

Cardboard, compost, and no-dig beds in the Nilgiris, and a gardener renewed alongside her soil.

BY Gayatri Ganesh

Resurrection of an Erstwhile Landscape

From grassland to tea and eucalyptus, and the slow work of bringing native Nilgiri shola and marsh back.

BY Ajay Ludra

Art & Adam

An art therapist, a refugee boy in the Blue Mountains, and paper, clay, and water as a way back.

BY Prabhu Viswanathan

Okra – From Roots to Table

From a grandmother's garden in Chennai to gumbo and podi chips: okra's long journey, and a taste acquired late.

BY Nikhita Venugopal

Gathering – an introduction

People, memories, food, and stories brought together, in Issue 3 of the journal.

The Art of the Toda

Red and black thread counted by hand: the Toda women's embroidery, its motifs from nature, and its safeguarding.

BY Ramya Reddy

A Guide to Thoughtful Gifting

Rose bushes, pottery classes, and handwritten notes: gifts chosen with thought, and with the planet in mind.

BY Ayush Kejriwal

Like a Warm Hug: Playlist #4

A playlist of fifteen songs for holding close, from Joe Sample's Soul Shadows to Karthick Iyer's Telisi Rama.

BY Pranoy Biswas

A Tale Of Two Birds & Tulu Mushroom Gassi

Monsoon mushroom hunts at an ancestral home near Mangalore, a folktale of two bird brothers, and a recipe for gassi.

BY Saritha Hegde

Monsoon Musings

A short film of the Nilgiris in the rains: mist over shola, the mountain train, hot tea, and old books.

BY Pranoy Biswas

Rainless Waiting

Dusk on the plains, the scent of petrichor, and a longing for the summer rain that once announced the heat.

BY Sharanya Manivannan

A Mountain State of Mind

A short film of Nilgiri days: tea slopes, a waterfall, jacaranda in bloom, the flower market, and dusk over the hills.

BY Pranoy Biswas

Photo series: Coonoor Sunsets of Mauve, Blue and Gold

Photographs of Coonoor's evening skies, as the light turns mauve, blue, and gold over the hills.

BY Ramya Reddy

We Come From Wind

BY Monisha Raman

The Shape of an Irula Home

A look at the traditional homes of the Irula community in the Nilgiris, shaped by land, seasons and ways of living, and changing under modern development.

BY Jeyanthi R

Infinite Hearth

Nishi Chawla offers a mythic, borderless vision of home, moving across worlds and ancestral lines. Her poem gathers indigenous and nomadic voices into an enduring hearth where survival, persistence, and shared memory keep the fire of belonging alive.

BY Nishi Chawla

Yangdol

Excerpts from Yangdol on a Ladakhi girl's world of mountains, sheep, and the snow leopard she longs to see.

BY Pankaj Singh

Chennai: Voices from a City

Chance encounters, inherited stories, and buildings that carry memory, in a life shaped by place.

BY V.Sriram

Mountain Magic

A return to the Nilgiris, tracing childhood forests, distant cities, and years of belonging.

BY Sangeetha Shinde Tee

Under the Skin of Silence

A season of grief, and how loss moves through memory, breath, and the body's rhythms.

BY Krittika Sharma

Listening to Trees: A Circle of Life

A meditation on the inner lives of trees and what they offer those who pause to listen, moving through memory, poetry and place toward a deeper attentiveness to self and world.

BY Priyanka Sacheti

What do I Know From?

Listening as intuition and chosen ancestry, from Uttarkashi's valleys to a street theatre troupe

BY Shastri Akella

The Old Dog in the Kitchen

BY Smriti Rana

Broken By Bread

Corn, wheat, and a search for belonging in New Mexico, where the story turns out messier than it seemed.

BY Janaki Ranpura

Choreographies of Scent: A Libretto for Dance

A poem and a dance libretto for a fragrance: parrots, lotuses, bees, and a forest moving through scent.

BY Jahnvi Lakhota Nandan

From Soil to Soul: In the Footsteps of Farmers

Farm stays, shared meals, and friendships with organic farmers that ask how much is enough.

BY Sreedevi Lakshmikutty

Pathways into Kinship: Lessons on Belonging from the Monarch Butterfly

A move to Vermont, a brook renamed for butterflies, and the monarch's lesson in belonging somewhere new.

BY Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, Athulya Pillai

A Fabric called Interface

Goa's grinding-stone songs, and the child brides, widows, and farmers who still carry them.

BY Heta Pandit

Blue Sky Kingdom

Excerpts from Blue Sky Kingdom on a family's months in a Zanskar monastery, and a way of life awaiting the road.

BY Bruce Kirkby

A Port of Healing

A photographer's burnout, rain-smudged windows in Bombay, and the slow seconds in Landour that brought the camera back.

BY Vivek Raj Singh

Keepers of the Elephant Hills

Mahouts and elephants in the Anamalai camps: river baths, jaggery rice balls, and a bond without bullhooks.

BY Pravin Shanmughanandam

The Healing Mountains: In Conversation with Dr Dorjee, The Tibetan Medicine Man

Sowa Rigpa, Himalayan herbs, and a Tibetan physician on why healing begins with an open mind.

BY Malati Mukherjee

The Dawn of Bear Island

Sloth bears in a rewilded corner of Kotagiri, and coexistence practised through guavas, open fences, and attention.

BY Gayatri Ganesh

Collecting Pools Of Light And Warmth

Mountain light and warmth, and how shelter gathers around presence, movement, and a lived day.

BY Bhavna Bhatnagar

Never Never Land

An excerpt from Never Never Land: autumn in Kumaon, a white crow, and mountain gods losing patience with humans.

BY Namita Gokhale

The Blue Remembered Hills

BY Meher Mirza

A World in Every Whiff: The Dog’s Olfactory Journey with Sindhoor Pangal

An excerpt from Dog Knows on a dog's extraordinary nose, enrichment buckets, and slow, sniff-led walks.

BY Sindhoor Pangal

Sound, Music and Memories: In conversation with Hariharan

A childhood steeped in Carnatic music, the discipline of riyaaz, and an attic studio lined with seashells.

BY Prabhu Viswanathan

El sabor de cuatro ciudades

Bangalore, Londres, Manila y Barcelona, recordadas a través del masala chai, las galletas mojadas en té y el pescado frito de una abuela.

BY Anjalina Chugani

My Evening Tryst

A walk at dusk after rain, the pull of frying bhajiyas, and a plate of paani puri made to order.

BY Amrita Amesur

Issue 5: An introduction

Regeneration, restoration, and the turning of the wheel, in Issue 5 of the journal.

BY Ramya Reddy

Of Renewal Through Nourishment

Learning to cook for herself at thirty, a mother's Monday dal, and the women who went without.

BY Amrita Amesur

Between Falling and Rising

An Odissi dancer, a knee that gave way mid-performance, and the slow return to a changed body.

BY Swati Prasad

Issue 4: An introduction

What anchors and sustains us, from ancestors to ecosystems, in Issue 4 of the journal.

BY Ramya Reddy

Rooting for Nature

How roots hold mountains together, store water, and sense the forest, and what being rooted could mean now.

BY Godwin Vasanth Bosco

Effortless Grace

Rolling shola grasslands, a gathering of cultures and cuisines, and long, unhurried lunches among Nilgiri friends.

BY Jenny Pinto

Gathering Courage: Tending, Mending and Finding My Way Back to Life

Inherited grief, two life-threatening illnesses, and the slow, stubborn work of making a life.

BY Madhura Srinivas

Theatre Practice in the Pandemic

Empty theatres, a loss of faith, and a personal manifesto for making performance with more care.

BY Deepika Arwind

Monsoon Musings

A short film of the monsoon indoors: library shelves, a lit fire, a drink in hand, and rain pooling outside.

BY Pranoy Biswas

The Sacred Monsoon

Flowers that foretell the rains, a Toda legend of how the monsoon began, and a climate no longer keeping time.

BY Ramya Reddy

Monsoon Melancholia : Playlist #3

A playlist of thirteen songs for grey skies and slow afternoons, from Philip Glass to Hindi Zahra and Indosoul.

BY Pranoy Biswas

A Mountain In A Pocket

A monk who carries the mountaintop beneath his robes, and small ways to keep the hills close from far away.

BY Sharanya Manivannan

The Making of Coonoor & Co – a Teaser

A short film on how the journal came to be: notebooks, tea, scents, forest walks, and a fire at day's end.

BY Pranoy Biswas